coldhearted scientist وداد

…my overarching structure and thread. While others talk about mestizaje and nation (and hybrid cultures) I am interested in race and the state. Looking at the same works through this [prism] gives other readings, readings that do not paper over violence and disjunction as much as do the more conciliatory mestizaje/nation theories. These never really solve the problem, and they mimic texts like María that keep these issues both submerged and present.

This also lets us look at these issues in the context of world systems and not national particularities (although we will of course pay attention to national and regional situations). And this works from Nebrija to affirmative action and “multiculturalism” (which is another displacement onto culture and elision of race and difference). It leads us through a different line of theorists as well, so I am going to be able to trace a critical line others have not. And there is a lot of work in Spanish on and related to this which has not received enough attention.

It is also going to let me get into the vanguardia, that is to say, I am going to take it as an opportunity to get into the vanguardia. And when the semester is over, or even at Easter, I will go directly to Austin and get into that new Anzaldúa archive.

The whole thing is so legalistic, and as we said that afternoon: “negro, blanco, pardo, gris, hijo, padre, bastardo, heredero, ser y no ser.” And: originary violence. I am not sure what do do with my other keyword, origins, stories of origins, but it is more interesting than foundational fiction; look at Pedro Páramo which does not found but explodes.

Axé.